It’s a topic that comes up at every carwash convention, in every circle of carwash operators: employee management. The complaints range from the lack of good help to the cost of retaining decent help to the impossibility of training any help. Professional Carwashing & Detailing® got to the heart of the matter in a 7-question survey. After tallying 215 responses, we’ve summed up our findings in a nifty fill-in-the-blank form:
Full-serves, flex-serves and hand washes…
- The largest percentage of operators has 11-20 employees (39.7%).
- Their management style is largely paternalistic (42.6%) and training is their biggest challenge (35.3%).
- The majority of operators (58.8%) said line workers are the hardest employees to retain at a full-serve carwash, and over 80 percent of operators use bonuses/commissions to keep workers.
Express exteriors and exterior-onlys
- The largest percentage of operators has 2-5 employees (72.5%).
- Their management style is largely paternalistic (45.0%) and disciplining is their biggest challenge (35.0%).
- The majority of operators (60.0%) said line workers are the hardest employees to retain, and over 60 percent of operators use bonuses/commissions to keep workers.
IBA-onlys
- The largest percentage of operators has 2-5 employees (30.8%).
- Their management style is largely democratic (46.2%) and retaining is their biggest challenge (38.5%).
- The majority of operators (46.2%) said technicians are the hardest employees to retain, and nearly 70 percent of operators use bonuses/commissions to keep workers.
Self-serves (with or without IBAs)
- The largest percentage of operators has 1 employee (44.4%).
- Their management style is largely democratic (42.2%) and training is their biggest challenge (42.2%).
- The majority of operators (46.7%) said technicians are the hardest employees to retain, and nearly 65 percent of operators use bonuses/commissions to keep workers.
Detail shops
- The largest percentage of operators has 2-5 employees (58.1%).
- Their management style is largely paternalistic (41.9%) and training is their biggest challenge (45.2%).
- The majority of operators (48.4%) said line workers are the hardest employees to retain, and nearly 80 percent of operators use bonuses/commissions to keep workers.
Vendors
- The largest percentage of vendors has 2-5 employees (27.8%).
- Their management style is largely democratic (44.4%) and training is their biggest challenge (44.4%).
- The majority of vendors (50.0%) said technicians are the hardest employees to retain, and over 70 percent of vendors use bonuses/commissions to keep workers.
